Mass layoffs at New York Community Bank

A few months ago, New York Community Bancorp honored one of its workers for 25 years of service. On Thursday, the worker, who asked not to be identified, was laid off as part of a mass firing at bank branches.

Westbury-based New York Community Bancorp has laid off dozens, and possibly more than 100 workers, including some with decades of experience.

The bank, with $40.6 billion in assets as of June 30, said it wouldn’t reveal how many were let go, but workers said this round of layoffs occurred Thursday, effective Friday.

They said employees had been told not to take the day off on Thursday, prompting some concern, although there apparently was no forewarning.

Workers said at least 30 employees, primarily women, were let go in Suffolk along with layoffs in Nassau and other regions. The Staten Island Advance estimated layoffs in Staten Island at between 30 and 70.

And workers said they believed there had been layoffs at other operations ranging from Ohio to Florida in recent weeks.

Mary Beth Kissane, a principal at Manhattan-based Walek & Associates, speaking on behalf of the bank, said the economic impact of the layoffs did not rise to “materiality,” the threshold for reporting financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“From time to time, they eliminate positions that are no longer necessary, because of changes in technology, work flow and the way customers do their banking today,” Kissane said. “Although we’ve recently eliminated some positions for these reasons, we are still more fully staffed than most financial institutions.”

The bank, which touts its community connection as a “family of banks” by retaining the names of community banks it acquires, as of today hadn’t filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act protections.

New York state requires private companies to give workers 90 days notice in layoffs affecting at least 25 workers at one site (if that’s at least 33 percent of the workforce at the site), or 250 workers from a single employment site.

But since these lay offs were spread over many sites rather than at one location, they might not trigger WARN Act protections.

“Each branch would be a different single site of employment,” said Frederick Dank, a rapid response coordinator for the Long Island region at the New York State Department of Labor. “If a lay off is covered by the WARN Act they have to give workers, the state and local government 90 days written notice.”

New York Community Bancorp, meanwhile, said the bank continues to have a big presence, as a financial institution and employer, on Long Island.

“The elimination of branch positions was completed yesterday,” spokeswoman Ilene Angarola said. “We continue to be one of the major employers on Long Island. Positions were eliminated throughout the branch network.”

Regardless of the financial impact on the bank, workers contacted by Long Island Business News described the human impact of a process, and a decision, that involved dismissing workers after decades.

“I got called down to an 11 o’clock meeting with approximately 30 people,” said one laid off employee who asked not to be identified. “We were given a speech telling us that our positions were eliminated. Human resources will take over.”

She said workers received a statement from the bank, explaining in general terms, but not clearly identifying reasons for the layoffs.

“New York Community Bancorp routinely evaluates its business needs with regard to staffing numbers and levels within its branches and other departments,” the statement read. “After reviewing the overall company staffing needs, it has been determined that your position will be eliminated.”

A worker who had been with the bank for 25 years said she received about $5,000, a little more than the bonus she received on her 25th anniversary with the bank this summer.

New York Community Bancorp, she said, used to give workers an additional week off each year after 25 years with the bank, but instead shifted to a $1,200 payment.

“They took that out,” she said. “Now they give you a check, which they tax as income. The vacation, you get every year. The check was a one-time deal.”

Another worker said she had been told her position was eliminated, but questioned whether that was the case.

“We want answers as to why,” she said. “I called my branch and they told me I had been replaced and another manager is going there. You’re telling me my position has been eliminated. Yet you put someone in my office where I should be sitting. They did wrong by me.”

New York Community Bancorp traces its origins to a single branch in Flushing, Queens, founded in 1859.

The bank, which operates 241 branches in five states, in Nassau and Suffolk operates principally as the Roslyn Savings Bank, including 55 branches.

It in New York also operates as Queens County Savings Bank, Roosevelt Savings Bank, Richmond County Savings Bank and New York Community Bank.

The bank also operates AmTrust Bank’s 25 branches in Florida and 14 in Arizona and 28 Ohio Savings Bank branches.

50 comments

Queens County Bank Yesterday, took 2-3 employees from every branch and put them in 2-3 groups of 40 or so and dismissed them without any warning or notice.

All the NYCB banks had similar layoffs in the 5 boroughs as well as the NYCB banks in Ohio, Florida and New Jersey.

NYCB were unethical in the way these dismissals happened, finding loopholes in legislation to dismiss the workers with no warning. The workers had no time to mentally prepare for what was going to happen.

No reasoning was given to why these employees were dismissed either.

State and Federal legislatures need to do something against the executives of the NYCB banks on the way this was handled. They even managed to keep the Local, Federal government in the dark, as well as the media and most importantly the workers.

That is one of the worst things I have heard. I feel sorry for the employees who got laid off without any warnings. Why doesn’t government step in? What nycb has done is illegal activity, and what boggles my mind is that they are getting away with this. Now, I have heard about this, I should definitely close my account first thing in the morning.

New York Community Bank was so unethical, calling people to report to a “Retail bank meeting” at about 5 different locations throughout Long Island, 3 locations in NJ and many other locations in Arizona, Florida and Ohio totaling around 600 people so far. Employees got to the “meeting location” and a person from security, H.R. and Regional Managers were there. They made you sign in, sit in a room with about 50 people and had the regional manager read off a paper that “positions have been eliminated and if you were in this room today your position has been eliminated.” H.R. took over and said “we know this is alot to absorb right now”….but each one is given an envelope and they asked us to sign an aknowledgement form. They gave no warning or notice, what so ever, very sad and traumatizing. Employees had their personal belongings at their branches and were asked not to go back to the branches. This was handled very poorly. State and Federal Legislatures should do something against these high payed Executives that will now get more bonuses since they fired so many people. They are now struggling and transfering tons of employees all over to cover all these locations that are shortstaffed. Unbelievable,no loyalty at all.

They did an old fashion cattle slauter….as supervisors we all got canned in 1 room & regular employess in another building & there were at least 30 supervisors let go from queens alone…Guess they had there reason…I happy, they did me a favor….was released from a company who treats employess like slaves….Thank you for freeing my soul…:))
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I got laid off by them in New Jersey too. About 40 or more people let got on Thursday with me and I heard more got let go on Friday. Did no surprise me how they handled it. They are pure trash to their employees. They let go of 3 full timers in my branch alone and we had two part timers on disability. That leaves them with 2 full time employees and 1 part timer now to cover 7 days out of the week opened. mon-wed open to 6pm thur-fri open to 7pm, sat open to 3pm and sun open to 2pm. you do the math and tell me we were over staffed… Im just glad i was already part of the military and still have benefits… Pissed me off how they did it though and that i am fighting for the freedom of over paid executives that would cut anyone out of the picture for money while i would gladly lay my life down for our country…

They lied about positions being eliminated because those same positions are being filled with employees from other branches. Shame on NYCB. The employees left will be slaved once again….oh now they will be paying overtime I guess??!!

I was also let go after 10 years. It had nothing to do with performance. They did a transactional “diversity” “study” and that was it. As a Branch Management Associate we don’t normally run a window if we are staffed and if the operations of the branch are truly controlled by the position, so a transactional study would be unfair to the position. As for your position being eliminated, there are Branch Management Associates that were NOT let go. I had 5 tellers/FSA’s in my branch and they hired in another one (that was NOT needed),,then they say branches are overstaffed, so they cut.
I have cancer and my regional manager knows that fact, you would think if local compiled the list or NYCB compiled the list, that my own Regional could have come to me and asked if I would take a lower position or try to work out an option. Well she didn’t, and she couldn’t even look my way at the “firing squad”. So to Erin,,,,,,I just can’t believe you can sleep at night. No one should have any respect for you at all.

totally shocked at being let go. But as this company goes..they have let go everyone at the back office operations and then transferred those applications to the “branch level” and yet with adding all of those duties, not once ounce of additional pay to the branch employees. The stress level for anyone working for this company is unreal. I was originally excited that NYCB took over Ohio Savings,,,,,but our old company had heart for their employees. With NYCB ..When I just read that they honored a 25 year employee, and then let them go, so sad.

The CEO’s of this company need to monitor those that they have in charge in their divisions instead of just monitoring their numbers. Keep a better eye on those that report to you, trust me if you polled employees that could answer you without being known, you would find out how incompetent those overlooking your workforce are.

It was a “cattle call” for sure. 11 am was the reckoning hour.
They said based on the recent study. Now this “study” was based on transactional count over a period of time. Branches were to report how many transactions each person did. Those “transactions” were based on actual transactions, customer calls and random customer inquiries.

Now, for fact a massive amount of Supervisors (Branch Management Associates) were ” position eliminated”

Now if you were truly a supervisor with a staffed branch, your focus was on audit responsibility, daily reports, customer service, coaching, cash management and any other numerous daily activities of the branch,

If any of those reports showed any kind of high or lows, you would think that that the managers of those regions would review and investigate and take all factors into consideration before laying hands on the release of any employee.

Shame on New York Community Bank for just releasing employees based on one study that one manager from each branch was responsible for reporting,

At my branch we have a newly appointed manager that has no business what so ever being a manager. She was a BMA appointed to my branch, she acts like a BMA and does nothing to promote sales, avoids opening accounts or even interacting with customers, and is very demeaning to the staff that we do have. But this is a person that NYCB has decided to keep. (of course she is in good graces with our local regional people and that helps)

I can only hope that NYCB will look further into their own decisions before cutting the better of their people, and look more into those above us. They need to be held accountable for their decisions and their mistakes.

My regional made many promises that were never kept. She was good a “blowin smoke”. Don’t trust, ever.

True, the layoffs were a shock and it is hard to make sense of why the bank let some people go while keeping others. It was based on a scoring system and if you were below the score you were let go. It was very cut and dry. The Regional Managers had no choice, they were not allowed to “save” anyone – they were called in on Wednesday and were told who was going/staying – I saw them – they were sick, crying and having a hard time understanding why it had to be done this way.

I feel bad for everyone, those who were let go and those who are still there trying to make sense of it all and wondering when their turn will come.

You had a pretty good seat in all of this to know that it was coming down on Weds and to know and see the Regionals.
But to say that they have no say so? and not \allowed\ to \save\ anyone? I would say that you have a wayy better than average seat in all of this. Call me naive or just stupid, but based on all of the people I have worked with, (just as a regional would have interacted) if \cut and dry numbers\ came down and unrealistically portrayed the performance of a quality employee, then the Regional whether \allowed or not\, should have brought to light (FOUGHT LIKE HELL FOR THEIR PEOPLE) that the kind of statistics used did not accurately portray the value and performance of certain employees and go to bat for those people. Upper management is more worried about hanging on to their paychecks and jobs instead of really being the true support for those under them.

I am sure that some people fit the true criteria to be let go for the good of the company, but I am also equally sure that the scoring system used by NYCB was flawed, and too many payed the price that they shouldn’t have.

Just because you are told you \can’t\ or \shouldn’t\, doesn’t mean that if you are passionate and believe, that you shouldn’t try.

So sorry to hear of the layoffs at NYCB. But really, did the employees there think that their turn wouldn’t come around…in this economy?…in banking? NYCB is in business to make money for the shareholders and they have done a good job until this year. I am sure that expansion and loas losses were a part of the reduuced profits. I’ve been in NYCB branches (often) and never saw anyone breaking a sweat to help customers. Sorry but the truth is the truth. Why would they tell you ahead of time? That would be asking for lots of trouble and account theft and fraud..really, and you know it too! I am sure that the method the bank used to select those laid off was fair. It just does not feel fair when its you! Feel sorry for yourself for a couple of days, get your resume together, get out and network, take some classes at the DOL, sign up for unemployment. Slap a smile on your face and get over yourself – you are not alone. If there was an executive at NYCB that didn’t act fairly – God will know!

You were “in the dark?” Have you watched the news or followed NYCB’s stock prices?

They don’t need a reason to lay you off. They don’t need a reason to fire you either! Being laid off is better!

Except in the case of large layoffs at a single location, you don’t get a warning from your employer when you are laid off.

Yes this is hard but no harder for you all then it was for the millions of other Americans that have been laid off since 2008!

“Unethical” to have a meeting and inform you and have staff there from HR to talk to you. What if they came to your office and said “leave now” – it has happened!

Slaughter – slavery – harsh language. What’s the difference between a supervisor and a regular employee?

There had to be a fair any systematic selection process. The department of labor will be sure of that.

You will have Cobra insurance coverage and unemployment to see you through until you find a new position. You will find one alot faster if you loose the giant chips on your shoulders and quit whining. Get tough – good luck

Now, look here!!! I feel terrible for those that were effected by this massive lay off. NOW I do not even work for the bank nor live in any of those cities that the laid off happen in. HOwever I do have some very close friends that this happend to. And My mother works there. I guess locky for her she was NOT part of this massive crazyiness. But how I wish she was. This company is horrible. My mom was prepared for the worst when she heard that this was a mandatory meeting. I am a manager in Retail. And I knew this couldnt be good. My mom always has a place to stay and Will never be left our in the streets. However not everyone is so lucky. If you were not part of this now, I am sure you will be later. So do me a favor, go out there and explore other opportunities and take what you have learn and masterd to another company to actually cares about theire employees. NYCB has invested time in these people, to interview, hired and train. Now you give that all up. You are all SUCKERS for not being able to love your asscoiate instead you left them. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!!

From my observations, it seems that someone decided that the in-store branches did not need a Management Team. From what I understand each in-store branch is now being “covered” by a nearby Traditional branch. Whomever made this assessment could not be more ignorant. Probably some yahoo from Ohio Savings or AmTrust. Since I’ve been through about 7 mergers with Queen County Saving Bank, original bank of NYCB, they seem to adopt the practices of the sinking banks that they acquired, not being able to have their own set of practices that are rock solid and not always changing with each acquistion.

As a Branch Manager who has been in the in-store branch venue for 15 years I can say firsthand that this will be a disaster for the bank that wants to be number 1 in customer service.

As an In-store employee I, and many others, did everything from investments, to teller transactions, to opening accounts, to solving customer issues, transferring IRA accounts, opening up Trusts, Estate accounts, Guardianship accounts etc, etc. And as an in-store Manager add to all of that all the managerial stuff our RMT expecting of us, like outside business calls, coaching, setting goals, doing reports, etc, etc. We were a full service operation from which the company really got it’s moneys worth out of each employee. WE wore MANY hats. We ran a 7 day a week operation, open to our customers 9 1/2 hours Monday through Friday and open on Saturday, Sunday and holidays. We were only closed 4 days a year! In talking with my many Traditional branch colleagues, both management and staff, the thought of working in an in-store brought one common emotion: FEAR. Because they knew they REALLY had to work. No hiding behing a desk in a closed door office at an in-store branch!

Through the years for the most part I had wonderful branch teams that never called in sick and did everything! They didn’t have the luxury to call in sick, even when sick, because more often than not there were only 2 or 3 of us (including Management) working the branch for the day.

As a Manager I had a special intimate relationship with my customers because they saw that if they were waiting on line to make a deposit or open an acccount, I would get up from whatever reports, sales goal setting, coaching and all the other stuff thrown to us by corporate that I was doing, and jump on the cash box and SERVICE them. To the best of my ability I never let a customer wait on line. The customer ALWAY CAME FIRST to anything else I had to do while the branch was open. More often than not whatever I couldn’t get done during the branch operating hours was done after we closed, And I was often working until 9 or 10 O’Clock.

So now they’re going to have Traditional branch managers oversee the in-stores?? Well good luck with that! THEY won’t be going there to run the branch. They’ll be sending their BMAs, who really do not have a whole lot of decision making power. And a Traditional branch manager taking a deposit or opening an account?? Will never happen. First they don’t know how to do either, and second this is below them.

As a manager I always liked to lead by example. I did everything that needed to be done no matter the task. That’s why I loved the in-store branch. I loved being an integral part of the staff. For this I lost my job.

You must be one cold hearted SOB, the truth of the matter is that you must not have been close to anyone affected by these unfair, yes, I said it,UNFAIR layoffs. The only explanation I could come up with is that you’re one of the “Aholes” who either came up with the idea to let go of people who dedicated years and years of service, or you sat your pig headed and probably oversized *** in a room and with a bunch of other “Aholes”, who with the swipe of a pen or perhaps the nod of a head decided the future of those who get out of bed every morning and do the best that they can. I on the other hand, have several accounts at Roslyn Savings Bank, and I used to know the Branch Manager by name, as he knew me the same way. He was very competent and polite to everyone, truthfully that’s what attracted me to that Bank, considering the fact that I had several other banks within walking distance from my business. Besides the excellent attention and quality of service I received from this one particular person, I can say maybe two other associates at the Branch I was able to trust with my transactions, they were very competent and promptly handled any issues or concerns I had, well to my astonishment, at that particular branch that Branch Manager was let go after almost two decades of service and loyalty to the Bank, in addition to the BM one of the associates, who I believed to be one of the best there was let go as well! So I’m sorry if this is all too “realistic” Mr. Reality, but it really hit home with me and my heart really goes out to anyone who was wrongfully terminated. Don’t lose hope and “this too shall pass”, there will always be inconsiderate morons like Mr. Reality in the comment above.

Your post made me cry. Thank you so much for what you said. As a BM I loved getting up each morning, opening my branch and seeing my customers. At this time when I’m feeling completely blindsided by what happened, your comments lifted my spirits and made me remember there are nice, caring people in the world!

I was shocked & in disbelief at the Thursday morning “meeting”. I thought, I too, was a valued employee. Everyday, I went above & beyond for my customers. I built friendships & longterm relationships with my customers. I was from the Columbia days, when the company made us feel like we were a family. But through the years, NYCB changed all that.

As I hear what is happening at the branches, I feel very sorry for my staff & others that remain. At first, I was so angry, very angry. I kept thinking, “why me?” Why not, so & so? Then I realized that this is a blessing in disguise. I won’t be coming home & eating dinner at 9pm, in my pajamas, exhausted! Working Saturdays, Sundays, & every holiday. I don’t have to worry, Am I working the day before Thanksgiving, the day after, Christmas Eve, New Years Eve? Maybe now, I can have a somewhat normal life & spend some quality time with my family.

I Am a survivor & what does not kill you will make you stronger. Thanks NYCB for many great years. Best of luck to those who remain. Tell my customers the truth about my departure & that they will be missed.

As a customer, I find no reason to remain ‘loyal’ to an organization that is astoundingly obtuse and uncaring about their employees.

This event greatly unsettles my personal ethics on conducting business. Any organization, which chooses to so poorly treat their employees in this manner, must by an order of magnitude greater be treating their customers more poorly.

Remaining with such a firm is unthinkable. Monday morning all of my substantial holdings – as well as those accounts of my family – with New York Community Bank will be withdrawn and transferred to a non-NYCB repository.

NYCB has choosen to act as they would with seeming impunity – NYCB customers therefore can do as equally as well.

NYCB. You opened this door. Don’t be surprised that others should come through it.

Myself and another full time employee was pulled from our work day on Thursday to go to this “meeting” in islandia at 11 o’clock, with the anxiety nd confusion about what this meeting was about , we had no idea that this was going to be our last moments with a job we trusted. This was such a horrible way to let your loyal nd trusting work employees go. I feel so betrayed by NYCB, a job that I saw my future in. I hope nothing but the worst for this company, you treated your employees like ****. With 7 days left I would have been on my 3rd year employed with them which means I would have been invested in their stocks. But life goes on and new opportunities will come my way. But what company is stable these days?? All I know is that I did enjoy my time at the bank and the experience is a good thing, I will miss the bond with the employees and customers that I had. Everyone just has to stay positive and hope for the best. This was a eye opener for everyone.

Thanks for caring X n G. They say in life when one door closes another one opens. What ever happens I know I will always have a place to call home. I am truly blessed with an amazing family. To those that were part of this lay off I am sooooooooo sorry and you will be missed.

Just a message from Raymond J. Keating, chief economist here at LIBN. Guys, man up! This is nothing more than “creative destruction” and frankly, you probably deserve it anyway. As my good friend Grover Norquist would say, you’re lucky to get one day’s worth of unemployment insurance out of me, and you can just drop dead on the street from a lack of health care you can’t afford because you live in the ONLY industrialized nation that doesn’t take care of its citizens this way. Maybe you could move to a prosperous nation like Slovenia where they do these things.

Don’t forget that Jesus loves you, and as it says in my
Bible, “blessed are the poor, because I couldn’t give a damn about you.”

This is Definitely NO FAMILY as they call themselves. \The Family of Banks\We come to work everyday help our customers that we are true to and this is the thanks we get. The fake crying and we are so sorry and basically have a good day dismissal was outrageous. Where is the warning to your employees that have stuck it out with you. Remember that God sees everything. What is measured out will be measured back to you and this company.

Don’t use my or anyone else’s situation as a reason to spew your left-wing political views and hatred of our country. Do us all a favor and why don’t YOU move to Slovenia. We’re all grown up to know that these things happen in business and all of us will be fine. America is the land of opportunity and I’m looking forward to the opportunity of new things.

Nas Sawed….you’re such an ***. How do you even know I want to go back into banking?? You don’t know me or anyone else that got laid off so keep your pessimistic **** to yourself. And I will be fine because I have everything I need in life by doing the right thing and working HARD and earning it! You won’t see me down on Wall Street whining about what’s not being done for ME and expecting to be handed a free ride. I’ll take a job for $7 bucks an hour if I have to because I’ll do what it takes.

You’re still and idiot! Go move to Slovenia where they’ll take care of you!

Uh, “Lucky”- let me give you some advice, because you really need it. You don’t know what’s going on out there. Oh, you’ve heard we have problems. But until they happen to YOU, you really don’t realize HOW bad they are. It’s like trying to describe what having a kid is- you don’t know until you’re actually a father or a mother yourself.

First, you may have enormous difficulty finding a job- ANY job- even at $7 an hour. So while I appreciate your p&ss and vinegar attitude, believe me, stronger people than you have been laid lower by what has happened to this country.

Secondly, those people down at Occupy Wall Street aren’t asking for a handout- they’re their for the reason that landed your @ss on the sidewalk- they want to work- they expected to work- their parents blew out their bankbooks getting them MBAs and preparing them for productive lives that would contribute something to themselves and their country.

But they discovered there was no “there” there. And the people responsible for blowing up this country- namely people who run Goldman Sachs, the credit rating agencies, the demagogues who think that markets can regulate themselves without guardrails, stop signs or protections against abuse, all got away with THEIR money intact while leaving the rest of the country bankrupt. Your job loss is not some isolated incident- it is the result of a problem that was made for you, not by you, and all of your bravado will not save you. For the first time in our history, America is staring down the side of the mountain that leads to the valley, not the sky.

I’m pushing 60 years old- I know what I am seeing with my own eyes. This is not a “left-right” thing, and you’re only allowing yourself to be manipulated if you let yourself think that way.

You have a right to a functioning society that provides opportunity for all of those willing to roll up their sleeves and get it.

But we don’t have that now- and if we keep going this way, we may not see it again for a long, long time.

Prepare yourself emotionally- you may have some difficult trials ahead of you.

I to were one of the unlucky ones. Been working for NYCB (Queens County Savings Bank) For almost 6 years. I went beyond my duties as a FSA not only for NYCB but for our customers and not because I had to, but because I loved what I was doing. They said they went by numbers but I must say this is unfair espcially depending how long they were tracking these numbers I know we had to track everything for a few months but everyones numbers would be different some more some less does not mean we were working less or working more. I speak for myself before the company made us all FSA’s I went from teller to asst. head teller then head teller and after asst. head tellers and head tellers didnt exsit once you became an FSA but some of us were still doing the jobs (I for one) I was lucky to have a managaer and assistant mangers who took the time to teach me other things because I was looking to move up in the company and they saw I was eager to learn. I also interviewed for a BMA after 5 yrs with the bank thinking i really had a chance and when met with regional they told i didnt have enough esperience and I should have more time as an FSA and learn more of the in an outs on the platform and not give up in the future that there would be more opportunities to move up with NYCB and I should keep up the great work and keep showing interest. So a few months past and a FSA position was posted and I posted for it and was so happy because this was my chance to get on the floor more then being behind the teller unit well I did get the position and I was happy to be back in my original branch, this was August of this year almost two months to the day I was laid off because of numbers of course I didnt have the numbers they wanted I was just on the floor for two months so I feel they didnt look at the overall numbers they just looked at what I was doing the past two months not from the first day of tracking. In the end all I get for dedication is unemployment and COBRA which I will have to pay for if I continue my insurance and by the way I can not afford I already looked into it and the monthly payment is more then one weeks unemployment payment. Sorry if I didnt make sense Iwasjust typing away needed to vent and get it out! But on this las note I want to wish everyone who were laid off lots of luck in everything that comes in your paths and I will miss my co-workers and customers I have made strong bonds with. Please feel free to let them know I didnt leave by choice.

I say F*ck them (NYCB) they dont give a **** so why care? The jobs gone anyway. Im just glad I planned for a layoff financially. Going back to school, finishing my degree, then finding a job to be “THE MAN” instead of getting owned by “THE MAN”. Good luck all I know i saw a lot of great people let go in Jersey.

I used to work for NYCB, started when it was Roslyn Savings Bank. Roslyn SB was a great company to work for and then these crazy dictators bought us. Everyday was new rules, changes, more new rules. The memos sent by upper Mgmt. seemed to have been written by a pre-schooler, full of typos and most made no sense.

My 21 year old daughter got hired by NYCB last summer, much to my dismay. She was not one of the employees “laid off” but she did quit yesterday! As she was pulling into the parking lot on Thursday, about 30 “laid off” employees were coming out of her branch crying. It was a scene that she won’t soon forget. One young man who’s wife just went on maternity leave with their second baby. One young man who took a bus everyday from Queens to L.I.. One off very good friends who didn’t know she was “laid off” unil she tried to log onto her computer! The managers of these branches did not know who was being let go, although they had to deal with this mental abuse from upper Mgmt. all week!

I’ve heard that the former owner of Roslyn Savings Bank was just sick about how his “banking family” was treated after the merge with NYCB. As he should be!

One more thing forgot to say, At one pont the employees were getting these memos everyday, all hyped up memos stating “something good coming in your pay envelope next week”, “something exciting coming in your pay envelope”, “Look for your pay envelope for something exciting”! Well that “something exciting” was a NYCB pin that we were ALL told we HAD to wear everyday or “face the consequences”! Sick People!

Ok Mr. Nas Sawed…as I said you really don’t know who you are dealing with. I am not some naive 20 something. I am a few years younger than you! When I graduated from a 2 year college in the late 70s jobs were hard to come by. But I did get a job in a bank as a teller. When I graduated with my BBA in the late 80s, again, jobs were hard to come by. The reason why there was 10 years between my degrees is because at the bank where I worked after graduating with my 2 yr degree, after 4 years of working there and training many management candidates, they would not put me in the management training program because I didn’t have a 4 year degree. However I saw a girl who I went to HS with, whose mother was a \bigwig\ at the bank, get into the training program with NO degree! So early on when I was 24 I learned how unfair the business world was. So I quit and went on to a very exciting job in an industry where layoffs were common when you were low on the totem pole. I went through several layoffs with this company and recalls, and finally after 2 years and 7 months working there the company went out of business because of the ECONOMY. At this point I was in my late 20s and decided to go back and get my 4 year degree. I waitressed at night and went to school during the day. My days were 18 hours long for 2 years! My parents did not \blowout their bankbooks\ because they had no money and couldn’t afford to pay for both my college degrees. I took out student loans and paid them off myself! As a matter of fact I had to defer my student loan after I got my 4 year degree from a very good University on LI because I couldn’t afford the $100 a month payment. Then finally after 2 month of searching, I got a job in the city for a marketing company. After working there for about 2 years, THEY went out of business because of the ECONOMY! But at least they gave me about a month’s notice and allowed me to work on my resume and fax to employers during business hours! They’re not so nice like that anymore. So as this was right before the holidays I took a seasonal job at at major retailer and stayed on with them until May when I got another position in that exciting industry that I mentioned above. The retailer kept me until I left because I was such a good employee. In the meantime while I worked at this new job in the exciting industry I had a second job working for a friend of mine who had his own business in the medical sector. So when I was home I worked for him. Then I got laid off at my exciting job and I worked full time for my friend for 5 years until I got the job with Columbia Fed SB at a job fair. NYCB took us over in 2001.

So this is my life. So in your original post when you say \we probably deserved it\ it hurt for people like me and many others who were excellent employees. That was cruel and you have no right to say that to people you don’t even know.

Now do I think that corporate greed is behind this lay off? ABSOLUTELY! As I worked with NYCB after 2001 I saw first hand how many, not all, of the \higher echelon\ changed. They got greedy and they became not so nice. They put enormous pressure on us to get sales, coach employees, get involved in outside activities, etc. It wasn’t enough just to come to work without ever calling in sick and run a 7 day a week operation with 5 staff members.

So as you can see I’ve given you a lengthy description of just my situation. There are many other situations like mine and different than mine. The one thing I refuse to do is PLAY THE VICTIM! It’s not Wall Street’s fault that I lost my job. That is just a too simplistic point of view. Nobody was complaining about Wall Street when they were making money in the 80s and 90s. The fact is Wall Street isn’t just for the wealthy. Obama had demonized Wall Street to a dangerous degree, while taking no responsibility for the reckless spending that he has done since he’s been in office! My 401k and many investments that I have are in the market. We all have to hope that the market continues to do well. It affects all of us. Are there people down there making ridiculous amounts of money and not doing the right thing?? ABSOLUTELY. That’s why we have the SEC, who is supposed to monitor these people and bring them to justice. I, for one, would not want to have their jobs for a second. I don’t care how much money they make.

So Mr. Nas Sawed….we will have to agree to disagree. I believe in personal responibility. You can’t just lay around in a park for 2 months complaining and expecting people to pick you up. You have to pick your own self up and move on. You’re 60 & have been through a lot as have I. IN YOUR POSITION YOU ARE NOT DOING THESE KIDS ANY FAVORS BY CODDLING THEM AND SAYING IT’S SOME ELSE’S FAULT THAT THEY DON’T HAVE A JOB!! I’m out of a job since Friday but I’ve been on the internet and have already seen several jobs at local banks and credit unions that are available! I’m not really sure if I want to go back to banking at this point. But the jobs are there!

Hey the reason why I call myself \Lucky\ is because I’ve worked hard and I’ve saved hard. I’ve never lived above my means. I drive a 10 year old car (only the 3rd car I’ve ever had!), as does my husband. These days people are expecting too much too soon. They see some of these realty shows where people are doing nothing but acting badly and making a lot of money doing it. Just recently I asked young person that I know what do they want to be. They answered \a realtiy star!\ Now this is really scary to me!!

But the answer is not to bash capitalism and work toward a socialist society. As you said in your first post we should go to Slovenia were they’ll take care of us. Well I don’t want the government taking care of me! I was taught to do that myself!! Hey when I was a kid my family was on welfare for about a year. Then my Dad, also someone who did many different jobs to make ends meet God rest his soul, got a night job at a motel. The family got off welfare. It’s a good thing that these programs are offered by the government but they’re going broke because too many people are \lifers\. And there are truly people who need it like the disabled among us, whether mentally or physically and of course our Veterans. But because there are people who use the system in America the people who really need it are not able to get it. You know I’m right about that!

I see your point of view and I disagree. So I counter it with my point of view and you can disagree as well. Personally I think the country has to resolve itself somewhere in the middle. Have a nice life!

To everyone angry at NYCB:
There is a campaign against NYCB’s irresponsible lending practices on multi-family homes and their practice of Predatory Equity. Predatory Equity is a practice in which people buy distressed buildings with huge loans in order to turn a profit. This practice leads to foreclosures, horrible living conditions for tenants, and the destruction of affordable housing in New York City.

If you are someone that has lost a job with NYCB and wants to speak out against their practices, or if you want to learn more about this campaign, visit: http://thesurrealestate.org/

A few points: The first post I made was a satire. The person named Raymond Keating is a columnist here who claims to be an economist. In actuality, he is a brown shirted, heartless fascist who spares no effort in telling us of the moral glory of Jesus, while his politics betray and trample upon his Lord and Saviour’s every utterance as regards the poor and the powerless. Jesus would not have such cold hatred in his heart for the unemployed and the sick as this man does. He is the personification of a moral hypocrite.

Secondly, as regards Wall Street, it is clear that you are utterly unaware of the role it played in the destruction of this economy. This is not the forum to do it in, but there are some excellent works on the subject at the library. I would urge you to inform yourself as to how the peeling away of Depression era laws left us with another Depression to live through.

while the Republicans in the House and Senate today work tirelessly to repeal the rules passed under the Financial Reform Act that restored those protections. They actively work to defund the SEC from enforcing the mandates they were given by Congressional Charter, so if there is another Madoff out there, there won’t be enough staff to discover the thief or prosecute the cases. Obama is not your villain.

You are dead wrong about the demonstrators, just as you would be wrong about the unemployed in bread lines in 1933, or during the recessions of 1980-82 and 1990. We had effectively reached full employment during the 90s, and the mechanisms that helped give us that were systematically destroyed for the benefit of the top 1% of the population. That is the truth.

So if you wish, forgive my sarcasm, but since you are fresh on the unemployment line, unlike millions of others who have searched in vain for work for over two years to no avail, I am telling you again: you are the victim of policies that were utterly unjust, reckless, and sculpted to benefit others at your expense, and they have now arrived on your doorstep. The US economy is no longer someone else’s story. It’s yours. If you wish to discuss the matter further, you may e-mail me at plinth5@aol.com.
I think you are an admirable, if quite naive, person. You went through a lot just to get to where you were. I see people who spent their youth working hard to get grades to prepare them for jobs that no longer exist, and more than likely, will never come back. This is a tregedy that will be with us for quite some time, and no political platform out there will restore what we lost when the hammer fell on September 15, 2008.

Hello Former NYCB employees, First, please let me send out my good wishes to each of you who have had to experience this very UNFAIR tactic of your most gracious former employer. I am aware of all of the layoffs, especially on New Hyde Park where the ENTIRE staff with the exception of one person was let go; each were replaced by part timers. This is a grand idea of the idiots in charge, they know that by doing this that they won;t have to pay for any insurance benefits. Isn’t that nice, and is this where you want to conduct your business? I know of one loyal employee who had over 35+ years with Roslyn that was let go 3 months shy of his retirement. Now, NYCB won’t have to pay for his medical benefits as they wouldn’t let him stay or at least bridge him for the miserable 90 days. Once all of this information gets out to the bank’s depositors, they’re going to flee with their $$$ and take it to other more reputable organizations. I say that everyone who reads this post should BOYCOTT NYCB. I wish everyone who has been let go the very best of luck, my heart is with you all- Thanks

Upper management decided to replace my position by promoting another BMA to Assistant Manager. A position that I have asked for, but was told until I got more new account practice, couldn’t be. Well low and behold, the Assistant that has my spot hasn’t opened an account “ever”. The new Assistant doesn’t even WANT to be an assistant. They promoted her from BMA to assistant during this layoff. She was told to accept or resign.

NYCB needs to evaluated those that were in charge of us, instead of us. Too many employees (including myself) were afraid to “call out” the Regionals above us.

The labor cost at my (old) branch should be exuberant! The teller line is very over staffed and current manager schedules float people to be on platform,,,, and why? because she doesn’t want to deal with opening a new account. That branch ran fine with prior management. We rarely had to call on float help. Why upper management doesn’t take a look at a branch with all those people and deny float help to go help the branches that really need it is beyond me.

To the CEO’s start looking at your labor costs and all schedules for these branches, then take a look at who you have controlling this.

For NYCB to not even consider performance, and to use a “study” that may be defective based on the context of job duties in branch by branch situations is callous and shows no respect or care for those employees let go.

You may very well be stuck with transactional champions that could care less about NYCB, and have let go the strongest that have endured FDIC takeovers, and the million policy changes and updates and still thrived for the NYCB family.

Truth is majority of the people let go were the most DEDICATED employees of the company
And that is a FACT. Strength Stability and Service? I don’t find Strength or Stability in any layoff. Where is your Service? At home collecting an unemployment check.

We are interested in working with you to create change out of our frustrations with the bank. Please contact us via the blog or at 212-479-3326 if you are interested in speaking out against NYCB policies, lending practices, or want to call for more bank restrictions.

Maybe if the employees weren’t told that they were part of the NYCB ” Family ” they wouldn’t be feeling this way. Layoffs… its part of business. when it does happen it can be handled with professionalism and at the very least with a small ounce of empathy. Stop the fictionalization of being a Community bank that focuses on Customer Service. If that
were the case you would have been more
diligent in your decision making. It is apparent you didn’t have a clue as to who you let go.

To add insult to injury they gave us “transitional” pay that amounted to 1 week for every 2 years worked STARTING from when NYCB took over, in my case, Columbia Federal Savings Bank (Haven Bancorp) in 2001. So my 15 years was knocked down to 10 years giving me 5 weeks BEFORE 33% was taken out in payroll taxes! Then, each employee has a bank of hours to use as vacation, holiday and personal day pay. They pro-rated that to the effective date of the layoff. So my 67 hours of unused time was knocked down to 7 hours!! Now I can take being laid off. It happens. But this company was so unbelievably cheap and greedy when it came to giving us some sort of decent compensation for our years worked. I honestly don’t know how Ficalora, Wann and the rest of the executive board can sleep at night knowing how they did this!! The “NYCB Family of Banks??” HUMBUG!!